source:  lewrockwell

By Allan Stevo

February 11, 2025

As anyone who has read my series called The Amtrak Vignettes knows, I’ve been on a train across the United States a time or two.

Recently, a loudmouth from Brooklyn was on the train. He was about 6 foot, 5 inches, about 300 pounds, a man’s man, from Williamsburg when it was still Williamsburg.  He was wearing his bright yellow “Don’t tread on me” t-shirt.

We were on a train headed for the San Francisco Bay Area, so lots of liberals on this one. And this guy spoke his mind with a resonant voice and loudly. I loved it.

You would be able to hear the liberal sphincters snapping shut all around with every increasingly politically incorrect statement from him, if it were not for the fact that he spoke those inconvenient facts at however many decibels an aircraft engine is.

The man’s man had a collection of foreign exchange students around him as he held court, seemingly taking in his every word. He had gathered these disciples over the course of the train trip. It was something to behold. He had an Indian, a Chinese, and a French, though certainly others like me were also enjoying the colorful take on the affairs of the world.

During one of the few pauses, I said “Hey, I like that shirt,” and asked him, “But where’s that accent from? Montauk or something?”

Montauk is at the absolute end of Long Island, sticking all the way out into the Atlantic.

He said, “Aww man. There is no bigger insult you can give a guy from Brooklyn than to say he’s from Long Island.”

To which I said, “Well, actually Brooklyn is on the same island you know.”

If you look at a map, Brooklyn and Queens, both east of the East River, are part of that same geographic island. They are quite literally ON Long Island.

He was not having it, “Yeah, but it’s not the same!”

It’s fun to give a guy the razz.

A little later, another guy comes up and says, “I like your shirt.”

You could feel the weakness being exuded by this guy, especially when standing right next to man’s man. I did not like it. I did not like the exuded weakness. He is the kind of guy who finally found a spine in life the morning after Trump was inaugurated for the second time, after he heard Rachel Maddow, followed by his wife both mournfully acknowledge the inauguration as legitimate. Only then did he find his spine.

This scene took place about a week after that.

The formerly spineless man added about the t-shirt, “I guess you can finally wear it now!”

You see, Trump had just been inaugurated the week before, so the weak man who was new in the conversation was saying, “Now that someone has been inaugurated, we allegedly free Americans are now allowed to wear shirts that speak our minds as long as they agree generally with the man in the Oval Office.”

What a weak and pathetic man. Even if you thought it, why would you admit that weakness by actually speaking it aloud to another man?

The 8,000 decibel Brooklyn baritone wasn’t having it, “Never stopped wearing it.”

That’s right brother. That’s right.

Never stopped wearing it, you wuss. He omitted verbally speaking the, “You wuss” part, but when you speak openly to some people it is hard to miss the “you wuss” part that exists to anyone attentively listening. Your devotion to the truth is an affront to anyone who does not have the same devotion. That can be inspiring to those who do not have that courage. But the more likely response is to perceive a courageous person operating in your presence as effrontery. That is okay. Just keep being courageous. It is contagious. Also, those who are too weak presently to be encouraged by your courage, will feel the sting of shame. You will be doing the person a favor.

I do not care if I agree with the loudmouth. I do not care if I disagree with the loudmouth. Freedom of speech is perpetuated and secured and expanded by opinions being voiced. It has nothing to do with who is the US President. It has nothing to do with court rulings. It has everything to do with courage.

This piece you are reading is from my latest book, entitled Do Not Apologize For The Words You Use: A Call To Poets And Authors Of Our Era, and which you, dear reader, can get for free above for the next week until the book is released in print.

The harder it is to say something, often the more necessary it is to say that thing. The more unpopular an opinion, the more effective that hint of truth can be, even if it is just a little squeak. Even if you can only squeak the truth, just speak it. Though, to be honest, an obnoxious and proud Brooklyn baritone is even better.

It is necessary to speak truth. With it, you encourage the remnant of believers around you. With it, you encourage yourself. And with it, you melt the hearts of your opponent.

It is so very easy to just speak the unpopular truth. Unless of course you do not want to encourage your allies, uplift yourself, and melt the heart of your opponent.

That would, of course, just make you weak if you chose that option. And it would make you determined to have such little seriousness about your values, that it troubles you not that you have no potency to win victory on behalf of your values.

Victory for your values should matter to you. Otherwise, are they really deeply held principles at all? Or are they just lightly appreciated preferences?

Such a man, I cannot stand to be around. The more I grow in faith, the more I grow in values, the more I recognize the price I have paid for such treasures in life, the less I can appreciate a man who has no such treasures.

And I really do mean that these are some of the greatest treasures in life — the hard fought, hard won values.

Of course there are treasures the weak man, too, can claim as his own, but that is not saying much. When evaluating the uniqueness of one’s treasures in life, one must recognize that in the most prosperous county on the planet even the guy who just crawled across the border from Honduras and the guy who has spent the last two decades on the street both have treasures to their name that the middle class could not have imagined just a half century ago.

Those really are not that precious of treasures.

There are treasures of value. And then there are “treasures” that even a weak man can own. But they are not the same. And sometimes the more flashy the “treasure,” the less impressive the person, though that of course has its limits.

You and I, both, likely, know plenty of upstanding men and women who have flashy treasures. They are those who stood by dedicated values along the entire path that they earned those flashy values.

Nonetheless, contained in concepts like values and the faith are their real treasures. Those are the treasures that took the most work to come upon. Some weak men can not tell you that, because they do not get it. Others get it all too well, and it is a grievous pain to them, as are you when you insist on speaking the truth and standing openly by your values.

Courage is contagious, and cowardice too is contagious. The ancient Israelite generals like Joshua, the right-hand man of Moses, were given instruction by Moses. There were certain men who were not allowed to march into battle. The instructions about the cowardly were clear. One such man was the coward. Why? Because his cowardice was understood to be contagious.

Check out this excerpt from a pre-battle pep talk, or at least instructions for a pre-battle pep talk.

“And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.” (Deuteronomy 20:8)

That’s the “Coward Go Home!” clause of the pre-battle pep talk. Cowards go home. We do not even want you around us. Sure you may help us win a minor skirmish or two. You may cause us to look more formidable in number. You may help us get the job done better.

But you know what, we do not want you around the rest of us because the risk is too great. You may spread your contagious cowardice. You may convince others of being people of preferences rather than people of principles. You may espouse desire for treasures that are no treasure at all. It was so important of a concept that the cowards be separated from the real men on the battlefield that Moses included this as some of his final guidance before he left them and the Israelites crossed over into the promised land.

Now in a civil society, we must understand something. Every single interaction with every single individual is a battle of values and one of those values is freedom. Your silence is compliance with evil.

Where there are lies in your midst, just call them out. It does not matter what anyone thinks of you. Just speak the truth and only allow the truth to be spoken by you. Just speak the truth and only allow the truth to be spoken unchallenged in your presence.

Get my latest book on why writers need to always speak their mind, no matter how offensive it is, for free here for the next week. Do Not Apologize For The Words You Use: A Call To Poets And Authors Of Our Era. And that does not just go for writers. It goes for all of us. In this era of supreme deceit, we need to know our values, we need to speak our values, no matter how “offensive” we may think those to be. Seldom is the penalty for that as bad as we actually think it is going to be, but even if there is a penalty that should not stop us. Since when was the truth determined by plebiscite? Never. Since when was a deeply held value determined by plebiscite? Never.

The upside of speaking truthfully, openly, and clearly is so great. It is so great as to be immeasurable. Have that vision for the potential of what freedom means. Have that vision and do not forsake that birthright, especially not because you were worried what someone with less vision, less courage, and less principled resolve would think of it.

Speak. Speak now. Speak boldly.